Half Staff

I’ve just about lost count, haven’t you? Who is it this time? How many shot dead and duly recognized? I’ll tell you what it means if it means anything at all, Old Glory in decline, the lowering of all we held sacred until the banner never meant to fall itself lies useless, lifeless on the pavement. What…

Young Girl On A Tractor

Long hair, long as corn silk, looking down at nothing but the ground, through iron, gears and engineering, waiting to go, waiting to be told what next to do, dreams unplanted in your heart and soul upon the tractor. Waiting to be free, the damsel sitting on the dragon, face downturned, holding on to power…

Erotica

In this world of sudden death, In this world of explosive violence, In this world of fear and apprehension, In this world of concrete poured endlessly, In this world of guilt, anger and despair, In this world of warning signs and fines and meaningless procedures, In this world of horror and terror and bombastic utterances…

Savoy Special

Let’s not do it. Let’s not go down the dusty road to death. We’ve built so many roads. Are none of them upward tending, over whatever obstructions we may find in our way? Or are we destined now to drive or ride in circles, forever longing for where we started, but lost destinationless and bored…

No One Wants A Pickle

The pickle is a lowly fruit, or is it just a veggy? Some say they’re really very good, but dills just leave me edgy. Gurkins have a sweetness which cannot be denied, but when I find them on my plate, I invariably hide them underneath a lettuce leaf or accommodating chip. Or better yet find…

First Million

How did it feel? One followed by all those zeroes, A couple commas. Those must have been the interruption between triplicate noughts. The sleepless, nervous, anxious, unspoken apprehension of what it means to strive for what only can be counted, never kissed or held in warm embrace, never smiled upon or smiling back, the world…

Penny

This is the way it happened. This is exactly the way it happened. I sat in a public place and the little girl wanted to operate the machine that squeezes pennies and makes them look like flat pieces of copper that used to be money. Her parents gave her fifty cents to operate the machine…

Double Cross

It always meant pain. Either you hung me on it and I suffered to your glee or I pick it up from the other end and you run in fear. Let’s talk about it as it really is, but you sit there as if it will go away and leave you untouched. Remember, its your…

Human Sacrifice

Now that they have proven themselves idolaters, filled with graven images and willing to deny the truth and turn a blind eye to mercy and grace, now that they have denied righteousness and driven themselves mad with lust for power and prestige, preening themselves in elaborate costumes of grotesque exaggeration, I want to tell you…